£<L  fovsS' 


ayland  Academy 

—————  I^S  STORY 

By  Rev.  W.  S.  Sweet,  Hangchow,  China 


ONE  OF  THE  DORMITORY  ROOMS 


American  Baptist  Missionary  Union 

FORD  BUILDING,  BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 


Wayland 


EVEN  though  Confucian  teaching  is  of  a  very 
high  order,  yet  in  its  practical  results  it  pro¬ 
duced  a  people  so  materialistic  and  selfish 
that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  conceive  that  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  was  not  the  outward  part  of  a 
deeply  laid  plan  of  foreign  countries  to  get  control  of 
the  flowery  kingdom.  The  schools  and  hospitals  in 
China  have  done  more  to  remove  this  delusion  than 
any  other  form  of  Christian  work.  When  the 
Chinese  saw  people  freely  healed  and  thoroughly 
educated,  who  were  not  compelled  to  believe  the 
doctrine,  it  gradually  opened  their  hearts  and  minds 
to  an  unselfish  religion. 

The  conversion  of  the  Chinese  has  been  a  difficult 
task,  but  no  more  difficult  than  the  conversion  of  the 
Saxon  would  have  been,  and  only  argues  the  stability 
of  the  race  when  once  really  in  the  light.  Let  us 
recall  the  fact  that  when  all  the  Saxons  were  wor¬ 
shiping  Thor  and  Woden  and  waging  bloodthirsty 
wars,  the  educated  Chinese  were  giving  themselves  to 

3 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


literary  criticism  and  the  perfecting  of  a  political 
government  which  has  withstood  all  attempts  of 
destruction  from  without  and  tendencies  of  disin¬ 
tegration  from  within.  The  superiority  of  the 
product  of  this  intellectual  exercise  is  manifest  in  the 
following  facts:  the  empire  has  not  been  absorbed  as 
has  the  American  Indian;  the  leading  bankers  of 
Japan  are  Chinese;  the  American,  the  Englishman, 
and  the  Spaniard  in  the  Philippines,  are  finding  in 
the  Chinaman  their  equal  in  the  race  for  commercial 
superiority.  The  reason  the  Chinese  are  such  poor 
soldiers  is  that  during  the  past  ages,  in  story  and  in 
poetry,  the  military  man  has  been  the  butt  of  ridicule. 
Because  of  this,  many  say  the  Chinese  are  not  given 
to  wars.  This  is  not  the  case,  as  there  have  scarcely 
been  fifty  years  during  all  their  history  in  which 
peace  has  not  been  broken  by  general  war  or  many 
riots  among  the  clans.  Because  of  this  superiority 
of  the  Chinese,  it  is  not  strange  that  schools  and  the 
education  of  the  Western  countries  should  appeal  to 
them  and  be  the  entering  wedge  that  has  broken  the 
seclusion  of  these  ages. 

Growth  of  Mission  Schools 

Before  missionaries  were  allowed  to  enter  China, 
Messrs.  Morrison  and  Brown  upon  adjoining  islands 
gathered  Chinese  children  into  their  day  schools. 
Thus  began  seventy  years  or  more  of  faithful  teaching 
in  the  mission  schools.  In  order  to  get  pupils  they 
were  often  paid  for  coming.  As  high  a  price  as  their 
board,  books  and  clothing  has  been  given.  Out  of 
these  schools  have  come  men  who  have  been  inter¬ 
preters  in  many  a  magistrate’s  office  and  helpers  in 


4 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


the  customs  and  post-offices  all  over  China.  Perhaps 
the  most  brilliant  example  is  Wu  Ting  Fang,  the 
ex-Chinese  minister  at  Washington. 

The  second  stage  in  the  growth  of  mission  schools 
was  the  period  in  which  tuition  could  be  charged. 
Schools  could  get  anywhere  from  ten  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  year.  As  board  ranged  from  three 
to  four  cents  a  day,  many  schools,  aside  from  teachers’ 
salaries,  were  self-supporting.  As  positions  in  stores, 
customs,  post-offices  and  government  offices  increased, 
there  was  a  boom  and  every  Chinaman  wanted  to  get 
a  Western  education. 

At  this  time  our  first  academy  was  organized  at 
Hangchow  and  called  after  our  Wisconsin  school, 
“  Wayland  Academy.”  Our  beginning  was  in  build¬ 
ings  made  of  mud,  leaned  up  against  the  walls  of  our 
neighbors,  and  our  one  recitation  room  was  the 
sitting  room  in  our  temporary  home.  Twenty-four 
pupils  came  to  such  quarters,  and  without  Baptist 
men  for  teachers,  without  any  appropriation  for 
school  work,  and  really  without  anything  that  could 
be  called  a  building,  we  worked  on  for  four  years. 
We  charged  seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents  for  a  term 
of  five  months,  and  when  the  second  term  began,  our 
attendance  ran  up  to  sixty.  We  saved  enough  to 
build  a  little  schoolhouse  twenty  by  thirty  feet, 
having  a  recitation  room  below  and  four  dormitory 
rooms  above. 

During  this  time  we  built  our  home,  and  the 
attendance  having  increased  to  117  we  gave  up  all 
the  first  story  of  our  house  for  recitation  rooms  and 
built  a  long  shed  of  posts  set  in  the  ground,  covered 
with  one  fourth  inch  siding  and  roofed  with  tile,  for  a 
dormitory.  When  Mr.  Millard  and  family  came  and 


5 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


TEMPORARY  DORMITORY 


we  needed  all  our  house  to  share  with  them,  another 
shed  was  built  for  recitation  rooms.  The  school 
shifted  and  suffered  in  these  quarters,  while  the  hope 
was  constantly  cherished,  “We  will  surely  have  new 
buildings  next  year.” 

Buildings  for  Wayl  and  Academy 

One  Sabbath  day  when  our  Bible  classes  were 
reciting  in  this  shed,  a  boy  pushed  open  the  rickety 
door  of  my  room  and  handed  me  a  telegram.  I 
hastily  tore  it  open  and  read,  “  Your  buildings  are 
assured.”  For  the  time  I  could  not  speak  and  tears 
of  thankfulness  came  unbidden  before  the  class. 
When  I  could  trust  myself  to  speak,  the  telegram  was 
translated  and  I  said,  “  Let  us  thank  God.”  I 
knelt,  and  with  me  every  boy  in  the  room,  heathen 
and  Christian,  knelt  before  God  and  lifted  to  him 
thankful  praise.  We  knew  not  from  whom  the 
money  came,  but  if  those  who  gave  could  have  seen 
us  there  in  tears,  surely  it  would  have  proven  that 
their  gift  was  appreciated  most  deeply. 

When  the  school  gathered  for  a  review  of  the 

6 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


Sunday  school  lesson,  we  gave  ourselves  up  to  praise 
and  testimony.  One  of  the  native  teachers  said: 
“We  have  waited  so  long  for  these  buildings  that  I 
began  to  doubt  whether  we  would  ever  have  them. 
I  am  sorry  I  doubted  and  this  gives  me  new  faith  in 
prayer.”  Another  said:  “  The  gift  of  all  this  money 
for  the  benefit  and  education  of  our  Chinese  deeply 
impresses  me.  If  Christianity  does  this  for  America, 
we  need  the  gospel  most  of  all.”  We  closed  with 
“  Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow,”  sung  in 
Chinese,  but  it  was  just  as  acceptable  and  expressive 
as  was  ever  sung  in  any  language. 

The  hand  of  God  was  manifest  in  giving  us  two  or 
three  acres  of  land  joining  our  compound,  which  was 
once  occupied  by  one  of  the  largest  Buddhist  temples 
in  the  city  but  was  destroyed  by  the  Taiping  rebels. 
This  cost  us  less  than  $500.  It  was  in  the  heart  of 
a  city  of  a  million  people.  Within  a  year  from  this 
time  temple  property  could  not  be  bought  by 
foreigners  at  any  price.  On  this  temple  ground,  once 
given  to  the  worship  of  idols  but  now  to  be  given  to 
Christian  education,  our  academy,  fifty-five  feet 
square,  and  our  dormitory  seventy-five  by  forty-two 
feet  were  erected.  One  of  the  old  sheds  was  removed 
and  used  for  a  dining  room  for  another  year  and  a 
half,  when  we  had  the  pleasure  of  erecting  a  dining 
hall  fifty  by  twenty  feet. 

A  Period  of  Reaction 

Just  before  we  removed  to  our  new  buildings,  the 
school  insurrection  period  swept  over  China.  For 
ages  the  teacher  had  been  a  despot  in  his  school  and 
had  been  reverenced  as  a  god.  The  spirit  of  liberty 


7 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


was  rising  and  showed  itself  in  an  outbreak  of  dis¬ 
obedience  and  disrespect  for  the  authority  of  the 
teacher.  This  was  fanned  by  the  great  mass  of  daily 
papers  that  had  sprung  up,  and  societies  were  organ¬ 
ized  which  furnished  funds  and  teachers  for  pupils 
who  would  leave  school  and  set  up  by  themselves. 
The  object  evidently  was  to  foster  a  feeling  of 
rebellion  so  that  the  present  dynasty  could  be  set 
aside. 

This  spirit  came  into  our  school  and  our  main 
Chinese  teacher,  not  a  Christian,  perceived  the 
trouble  and  suddenly  left  on  a  pretense  of  attending  a 
wedding,  but  with  the  determination  not  to  return. 
It  was  very  difficult  to  fill  his  place  in  the  middle  of 
the  term,  and  thus  our  teaching  force  was  crippled 
and  difficulty  in  the  Chinese  classes  began  which 
needed  repression.  Then  the  pupils  began  to  mani¬ 
fest  great  hatred  toward  the  religious  instruction, 
which  called  forth  the  need  of  reprimand;  later  there 
was  trouble  regarding  the  school  cook,  and  one  even¬ 
ing  several  boys  came,  one  after  the  other,  saying 
they  wished  to  leave.  This  was  my  first  inkling  of  a 
combine.  Not  a  single  teacher  had  told  me.  It 
was  then  I  needed  Baptist  helpers  upon  whose  should¬ 
ers  and  hearts  the  welfare  of  the  school  rested;  but 
as  this  was  our  first  school  of  higher  grade  there  was 
not  a  native  in  the  mission  prepared  to  fill  such  a 
position.  Just  then  every  spare  moment  of  my 
time  out  of  class  was  engaged  in  buying  the  land  and 
contracting  for  the  erection  of  the  buildings.  The 
crisis  came  unawares.  That  evening  I  went  out 
and  found  fifty  in  the  combine,  but  sixty  were  true 
to  the  school.  The  next  day  when  they  left,  but  one 
Christian  boy  went  with  them.  It  threw  the  school 

8 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


into  a  most  terrible  condition.  Religious  work  was 
stopped  and  a  spirit  of  deep  hatred  for  the  missionary 
teachers  was  manifest  on  every  hand.  The  dif¬ 
ficulty  of  managing  the  school  had  increased  a  hun¬ 
dred-fold.  This  was  the  condition  at  Wayland, 
which  was  repeated  in  very  many  schools,  and  even 
theological  seminaries,  throughout  the  empire.  The 
Provincial  University,  a  Chinese  school  in  our  city, 
was  nearly  ruined  and  did  not  have  recitations  again 
for  over  a  year.  Many  country  schools  were  closed, 
never  to  be  opened.  The  spirit  continued  for  several 
terms  and  probably  brought  itself  to  an  end  by  a 
great  insurrection  among  the  students  in  Japan. 
The  school  authorities  there  tried  to  break  up  the 
evil  influences  among  the  Chinese  students  by  making 
a  rule  that  the  boarding  places  of  the  students  should 
be  determined  by  the  president  of  the  school  they 
were  attending.  Nearly  6,000  students  left  Japan 
and  returned  to  China.  China  then  saw  that  this 
attitude  would  wreck  the  new  educational  system  that 
was  to  take  the  place  of  the  ancient  examinations 
which  the  empress  dowager  had  swept  away  by  her 
famous  edict.  The  pendulum  was  swinging  the  other 
way  and  Chinese  students  became  more  manageable. 


The  Short-Cut  Craze 

Another  fad  swept  over  the  empire  which  may  be 
known  as  the  “  short-cut  craze.”  In  China,  where 
it  was  not  strange  to  see  grandfather,  father  and  son 
in  the  same  examination,  where  a  man  was  a  student 
even  to  old  age,  there  was  confidence  that  an  educa¬ 
tion  that  would  take  an  American  from  six  to  ten 
years  to  get,  a  Chinaman  could  obtain  in  six  months. 


9 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


Japan  lent  herself  to  this  craze  and  hundreds  of  men 
went  there  for  six  months  or  a  year  and  returned,  as 
they  thought,  fully  prepared  to  become  leaders  in  the 
reformation  of  their  country.  Our  governor  sent  a 
number  of  young  men  to  Japan  who  had  never  even 
opened  an  arithmetic;  after  they  had  been  there  six 
months  he  ordered  them  to  change  their  course  of 
instruction  so  they  could  return  at  the  end  of  the 
year  to  survey  and  superintend  the  construction  of  a 
railroad  from  Hangchow  to  Shanghai.  So  many  of 
these  men  secured  positions  that  it  was  very  difficult 
for  our  schools  to  hold  pupils  to  a  full  course.  Many 
boys  came  to  our  school  who  would  have  thought 
three  dollars  a  month  good  wages,  who  after  two 


IO 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


!W.  S.  SWEET,  PRINCIPAL 


years  could  get  from  twenty  to  fifty  dollars  a  month. 
The  failures  of  these  men  soon  caused  the  officials  to 
prize  a  man  with  a  diploma,  and  the  schools  of  China 
settled  down  upon  a  solid  basis.  Where  there  had 
been  hatred  before,  a  kindly  feeling  came  to  exist  and 
an  obedient  spirit  took  the  place  of  disobedience. 
Thorough  work  was  desired  instead  of  a  smattering. 
Again  it  was  a  pleasure  to  do  school  work. 

Native  schools  sprang  up  and  the  educational 
evangel  flourished.  In  Hangchow,  which  is  typical 
of  all  the  cities  of  China,  there  was  the  provincial 
school  opened  by  the  governor.  The  mayor  opened  a 
school;  each  of  the  district  magistrates  and  many 
wealthy  merchants  had  their  own  schools  for  which 

1 1 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


they  erected  fine  buildings.  Two  girls’  schools 
were  started  by  the  gentry  and  many  primary  schools 
were  opened  by  the  governor  as  feeders  to  the  uni¬ 
versity.  In  a  country  district  where  one  of  our 
church  members,  Mr.  Ching,  lived,  a  Japanese  got 
possession  of  a  large  tract  of  land  under  contract  to 
run  a  school.  After  the  deeds  were  signed,  he  sold 
the  property  to  the  Roman  Catholics.  Mr.  Ching 
got  up  a  subscription  and  bought  the  property  back 
for  $300,  and,  organized  a  school  which  at  last  accounts 
was  doing  well. 


The  Hangchow  Girls  School 

At  this  time  the  wish  for  a  girls’  school,  long 
repressed  in  the  heart  of  Mrs.  Sweet,  was  realized. 
The  quarters  occupied  by  the  boys’  school  at  first, 
then  vacant,  and  being  far  removed  from  the  new 
buildings  occupied  by  the  boys,  could  be  used  for  the 
girls.  Coeducation  would  be  utterly  impossible  in 
China  at  present.  Just  at  this  time  a  girl  from  one 
of  the  better  families,  a  sister-in-law  of  our  head 
Chinese  teacher  in  the  boys’  school,  came  to  us  and 
desired  instruction.  Mrs.  Sweet  went  to  the  other 
missions  only  to  find  that  their  girls’  schools  could 
not  take  even  one  other  pupil.  This  seemed  to  be 
God’s  leading  and  we  advertised  a  girls’  school. 
There  were  twelve  pupils  the  first  term;  the  second 
term  the  attendance  increased  to  over  twenty.  It 
was  found  necessary,  because  of  the  marriage  of  Miss 
McDonald,  to  close  the  girls’  school  which  she  and 
Miss  Dutirle  had  opened  at  an  outstation,  and  when 
these  pupils  came  into  the  city  the  attendance  was 
increased  to  over  thirty. 


12 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


The  first  pupil  mentioned  above,  after  a  year’s 
training,  was  converted  and  baptized.  She  became 
a  good  helper  but  was  soon  stricken  with  consumption 
and  passed  on  to  finish  her  training  above.  Another 
bright  pupil  became  our  helper,  who  when  we  came  to 
America  was  taken  to  Shanghai  to  finish  her  educa¬ 
tion,  in  the  hope  that  when  we  return  she  will  be 


GIRLS’  SCHOOL,  HANGCHOW 


ready  to  enter  the  teaching  staff  of  our  school.  The 
niece  of  the  governor  of  Soochow  attended  the  school 
a  year,  but  because  she  loved  the  gospel  was  removed 
to  another  school  by  her  father.  One  day  she 
visited  us  and  asked  Mrs.  Sweet  to  join  her  in  prayer 
that  she  might  return  to  our  school.  They  knelt  and 
prayed  together  and  she  went  away  with  a  light 
heart.  Letters  from  Mrs.  Millard,  who  has  charge  of 
the  school,  say  that  she  is  in  school  and  a  band  of 
teachers  and  pupils  are  praying  that  her  father,  the 
superintendent  of  the  Confucian  temple  ceremonies, 
may  be  brought  to  Christ.  The  school  is  under  the 


1 3 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


care  of  the  Woman’s  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  West,  who  hope  ere  long  to  send  out  a 
young  lady  to  take  charge.  The  need  of  buildings 
to  properly  house  this  school,  we  believe,  will  be 
supplied  as  soon  as  the  missionary  is  prepared  to  take 
charge  of  it. 

The  entire  method  of  teaching  is  changed.  Books 
are  now  prepared  by  the  Chinese  like  our  reading 
books,  whereby  the  children  may  learn  their  own 
language  by  easy  grades,  instead  of  learning  the  most 
difficult  classics  when  they  first  enter  school. 

One  Thing  Lacking 

Although  China  was  professedly  open  to  the  gospel, 
yet  the  peculiar  opposition  of  the  educated  classes 
to  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  was  manifested  by  a 
rigid  rule  in  all  Chinese  schools  that  Confucius  should 
be  worshiped  the  first  and  fifteenth  of  every  month. 
For  this  reason  many  missionaries  left  the  public 
schools  and  all  Christian  students  were  practically 
ruled  out.  As  all  political  preferment  came  through 
these  native  schools,  Christian  men  were  debarred 
from  office.  This  caused  much  disadvantage  to  the 
Christian  student,  and  finally  a  committee  of  mis¬ 
sionaries  from  the  Educational  Society  was  appointed 
to  consult  with  the  ministers  of  the  various  powers, 
and  through  them  the  Chinese  Government,  regarding 
the  removal  of  this  ban  and  to  secure  government 
recognition  for  mission  schools.  At  this  time  the 
results  of  the  work  of  this  committee  are  unknown; 
but  it  is  a  very  important  move  and  should  call  forth 
prayer,  for  in  this  decision  the  empire  will  move 
toward  or  away  from  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus. 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


The  First  Commencement 

Our  first  commencement  was  held  just  before  the 
Chinese  New  Year,  January  7—1 1,  1906.  The  Chinese 
guests  of  honor  were  the  president  of  the  foreign 
bureau,  the  mayor  of  the  city,  the  provincial  super¬ 
intendent  of  schools,  the  Japanese  consul  and  vice- 
consul  and  a  representative  from  the  American 
consulate.  There  were  many  guests  from  the  wealthy 
class.  Our  chapel  was  crowded  full,  as  was  our  home 
at  the  afternoon  tea  served  at  the  close  of  the  exer¬ 
cises.  Many  of  these  officials  came  into  touch  with 
the  work  of  missions  for  the  first  time,  and  who  can 
tell  the  amount  of  prejudice  that  was  broken  down? 
This  is  a  specific  case,  but  all  over  the  empire  these 
commencements  make  an  impression  on  officials  of 
every  grade  and  on  other  classes  who  perhaps  could 
not  be  reached  by  Christian  influence  in  any  other 
way. 

The  class  that  will  complete  the  course  next 
January  is  made  up  of  five  young  men.  One  is  the 
son  of  an  official,  two  are  members  of  the  Church 
Mission  Society,  and  another  is  the  son  of  a  wealthy 
family  at  Mosan.  The  fifth  is  one  of  our  Baptist  men 
who,  without  means,  has  worked  his  way  through 
school.  For  the  last  three  years  he  has  really  been 
our  general  manager,  teaching  any  and  all  classes 
both  in  English  and  Chinese  that  seemed  to  have  no 
regular  teacher.  Of  those  who  have  graduated,  one  is 
our  science  teacher  and  the  other  teaches  mathe¬ 
matics. 

The  educational  force  exerted  by  the  missionary 
body  today  may  be  stated  in  figures  as  follows: 
day  schools,  1,350,  with  23,000  pupils;  boarding 


15 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


schools,  278,  with  13,600  pupils,  and  14  colleges,  of 
which  1 2  are  supported  by  American  missionary 
societies.  Morally  and  spiritually  this  influence 
cannot  be  computed  in  reaching  the  official  and 
literary  classes  of  society,  and  in  lifting  many  children 
of  the  poorer  classes  to  positions  of  respectability  and 
influence. 

Spiritual  R  esults 

There  has  been  a  constant  work  of  grace  in  the 
academy  and  fifteen  young  men  have  been  won  to 
Christ  and  turned  toward  Christian  work,  while  ten 
Christian  boys  have  been  fitted  for  more  efficient 
work.  One  of  these  was  teaching  in  an  adjoining 
district  in  a  native  school.  After  a  year’s  work,  two 
of  his  pupils  came  to  Way  land  with  hearts  prepared  to 
receive  the  gospel  and  were  baptized  during  their 
first  year.  Other  pupils  who  are  teaching  in  Shaoh- 
sing,  Huchow  and  other  places  have  sent  their 
pupils  to  us  and  the  influence  of  the  school  is  felt  over 
a  wide  territory.  Many  of  our  pupils  are  the  sons  of 
officials  and  one  of  these  has  boldly  confessed  his 
faith  and  been  baptized. 

One  of  the  strong  influences  for  God  is  the  voung 
men’s  Christian  association  summer  schools  for  col¬ 
lege  students,  —  a  kind  of  Northfield  repeated  on 
Chinese  soil.  Among  the  distinguished  young  men 
that  attended  last  year  was  the  secretary  of  the  rail¬ 
road  commissioner,  an  interpreter  to  one  of  the 
viceroys,  professors  from  the  Shensi  University  and 
St.  John’s  College,  and  men  from  the  secretarial  staff 
of  the  Chinese  customs.  One  of  the  most  impressive 
features  of  the  meetings  was  the  discussion  of  the 
question,  “  Why  I  entered  Christian  work,”  par- 

16 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


ticipated  in  by  a  large  number  of  young  missionaries. 
This  was  followed  by  a  consecration  service,  in  which 
many  students,  one  interpreter  and  a  customs’ 
secretary,  pledged  to  give  their  lives  to  Christian 
service.  There  are  four  of  these  summer  schools 
held  every  year  in  different  parts  of  China. 


Defi  mte  Needs  of  ^Vayland 

Our  present  enrolment  is  ninety  and  we  have 
dormitory  accommodations  for  but  fifty-six.  The 
academy  building  is  not  arranged  for  laboratory 
work  and  we  need  a  thoroughly  furnished  science  hall. 
In  order  that  the  school  may  come  under  the  influence 
of  the  local  church,  we  must  have  a  larger  church 
building.  The  mission  teachers  have  good  homes, 
but  our  native  teachers  at  present  have  nothing  but 
native  houses  of  the  poorest  kind.  Three  semi- 
American  homes  should  be  built  for  the  native 
teachers.  This  will  do  much  toward  drawing  to  us 
and  holding  teachers  of  good  ability.  With  these 
improvements,  which  will  cost  from  $12,000  to  $18,000, 
our  school  will  be  ready  to  help  China  in  her  rapid 
progress  toward  civilization  and  power. 

The  educational  plan  of  our  mission  is  to  establish 
day  schools  in  every  station,  a  boarding  school 
wherever  a  missionary  family  resides,  Wayland 
Academy  at  Hangchow  with  its  four  years’  course  of 
study,  and  the  union  college  soon  to  be  opened  in 
Shanghai.  Through  our  schools  we  have  reached 
the  higher  classes,  and  the  lower  classes  have  been 
elevated.  Indeed,  too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  laid 
on  Christian  schools  in  China. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  many  of  the 


17 


WAYLAND  ACADEMY 


students  of  the  mission  schools  have  been  led  to 
embrace  the  Christian  religion,  but  even  if  this  were 
disappointing,  we  still  can  see  that  the  pupils  who 
come  under  the  instruction  of  these  schools  can  hardly 
fail  to  have  misconceptions  removed  and  to  have  some 
appreciation  for  the  great  religious  ideas  contained 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.”  It  has  been  said 
that  “  Christianity  entered  Japan  through  the 
school.”  We  think  it  may  be  said  without  exaggera¬ 
tion  that  much  of  the  work  of  preparing  China  to 
understand  the  Christian  religion  has  been  performed 
quietly  and  silently  in  our  mission  schools. 


1 8 


551-1  ED.-3M-10-06. 


